Céline Dion brings Eurovision Song Contest to Lausanne

Published on 5/23/2016 by

It has been the tradition since 1958 that the Eurovision Song Contest is always held in the country of the previous year's winner. When Céline Dion won the music contest in Dublin in 1988, the event one year later came to the Palais de Beaulieu in Lausanne.

As a Canadian, Céline Dion would not have stood much of a chance of winning what is after all a European contest. So she appeared on behalf of Switzerland and sang the winning song "Ne partez pas sans moi" by the Swiss composers and song-writers Atilla Sereftug and Nella Martinetti. The wafer-thin victory of just one point ahead of Scott Fitzgerald from the United Kingdom was enough to bring the Eurovision Song Contest to Switzerland one year later. The chosen venue was the Palais de Beaulieu Lausanne, and that year the winning country was Yugoslavia.

Up until that point in time, Céline Dion had been successful above all in Canada and France. She made her international breakthrough in 1992. Along with Peabo Bryson, she sang the title song for the Disney animation feature film "Beauty and the Beast". Up until the present, she has sold more than 230 million albums, making her one of the world's most successful female pop singers.